End of February

Can you believe February is history already?! There is nothing exciting happening on the wildlife front except that slow crawl into spring. There is something new every day - it might be another species of bird bursting into song, the Collared Doves getting frisky or the Crossbills eating shells on the shore!

You can't fail to be impressed with the splendid male Red-breasted Merganser - he has already won his mate.

I have seen my first bunch of frogspawn at the end of February plus the Primroses are starting to emerge.

The Treecreeper becomes more obvious for us during February and it's nice to get a shot of one being the tree mouse and scampering up the tree trunks.

The WT Eagle will soon be on the nest so they have less of the wanderlust and spent quite a bit of time flying around together.

I have seen quite a bit of this young Golden Eagle over the winter and it seems to like stirring up the Buzzards - come on if you think you're hard enough!

The year list stands at 89 species while PWC scores are 61 species and 73 points.

Long-tailed Skua!

A good start to the day with fine weather, a WT Eagle at the nest and another in flight.

The usual selection of first summer and adult GN Diver plus plenty of Razorbill and two RT Diver kept us interested. A wander in the wood produced half decent views of Wood Warbler...

...and cracking views of a Treecreeper.

The weather had cooled and the sky had clouded over, it took a while to find a Buzzard never mind anything else! Stonechat and Whinchat were seen and an Adder was found too. Our next sighting was a bit unreal...we were driving along the road and I spotted a flock of birds, pointed wings and a bit of a tail sticking out - my first thought was terns but after a quick second look the engine was off and we outside looking at a flock of about 40 Long-tailed Skuas!!

I have seen less than 10 in my life and there have not been more than 40 seen in Argyll...ever. Biggest number seen at any one time in Argyll was four birds and we were looking at ten times that amount and they were all adults too - totally AWESOME!!!!

The waders are still hanging in so Turnstone, Dunlin, Ringed Plover and a couple of Whimbrel were soon on the list.

The Golden Eagles were a bit difficult but we managed to get a sighting and a couple of Otters were found sleeping on the shore. A couple of good looking GN Diver were seen on the way back...

...and while we had another look at the WT Eagles a Common Buzzard was circling with a small Rabbit in it's talons.

Blue.

No change in the chilly conditions but there was a bit of sunshine. Just as I was leaving the garden a couple of Blue Tit turned up at the feeders so I hung around for a bit. It was difficult to get a clear shot at either bird when they left the feeders but I managed a couple of decent ones.

The Golden Plover were a bit closer to the road but with the blustery wind it was never going to be easy to get some shots. Not the of best of shots but it was nice to get the Lapwing flying past too.

Most of the GN Divers are starting to sport a bit of summer plumage now.

I have noticed there is a distinct lack of frogspawn this year. There is still time for them to appear but at the moment there is about a 50% reduction of spawn in the pools. The only Frog that I came across was in the talons of a Buzzard - it's not just people that eat frogs legs!

The Buzzard was taking it's time to eat it's meal so I headed off.

It was nice to catch this Mistle Thrush on a post as they are normally on the ground or perched in a tree.

Bird of the day had to be the Treecreeper that hung around long enough for me to get the camera and grab a couple of shots.